My 18-year-old son, Matthew, is so incredibly gifted musically that if he did not look so much like me, I would say they mixed babies up at the hospital! I am so very proud of him. When he was a toddler, he always wanted to play toy drums, guitars, and pianos. He began taking music lessons when he was seven and found that he was a natural. He is especially passionate about guitars--every type of guitar there is. He owns four of them and wants so many more.

Almost a year ago, he started building a web site about guitars and he gives online guitar lessons for free. If you want to learn to play the guitar, I suggest you visit his web site.

Matthew believes that every guitar beginner can succeed at playing the guitar. He prepares easy lessons, both online and in person. He gives guitar and keyboard lessons in our home to children and teenagers. Matthew feels that students should take as much time as they need with each lesson. Practicing is the key. In the eleven years that he has taken lessons, he has  had tons of practice!

Here is an excerpt from his site:

"First, you will become familiar with the guitar itself. Then I will teach you how to play chords to bar chords. Before long, you will be playing guitar like a pro.

If you are a guitar beginner, the best way to use Guitar Beginner Center is to follow the lessons in order. Do not feel like you are being rushed. Relax. Enjoy. Take your time. Above all, don't forget to practice, practice, practice. Because I also enjoy playing bass and ukulele, there are some lessons for these instruments as well.

Welcome to your first of many easy guitar lessons. Well, actually a pre-lesson.

First, we're going to talk about the body of the guitar. There are three basic parts on guitars. They are the body, the neck, and the head.

The body is the bottom of the guitar, where you usually strum.

The neck or fret board is the part of the guitar with all of the frets and it's where you'll be positioning your fingers for chords.

The head is the place where all the funny knobs are. These are for tuning the guitar which we'll talk about in a short while on this page.

Now we're gonna talk about the strings. Each string is a note, starting with the low E (the thick string on the left below). Next is the A string, then D, G, B, and the high E. Please see the photo below. The thickest string is the low E. The thinnest string is the high E.

Most guitars just have these six strings but if you're exotic, you could be on a 12 string guitar or some crazy 20 string thing that no one has heard of!

There are many ways to tune a guitar. The most easy way to tune a guitar is to use an electronic guitar tuner. These can usually be found at your nearest music store or online. You can find a good one for about $30 to $40.

Another method to tune a guitar is to use a piano. To do this, simply play the note on the piano of the guitar string you are tuning until the guitar string sounds like the note on the piano.

The last method I'm going to talk about it tuning by ear. If you've memorized what the string is supposed to sound like, then congratulations! This is not an easy thing to do."